Republican presidential debate LIVE: Showdown in Miami comes to end after a battle between DeSantis and Haley and as Vivek doubles down on his TikTok attack

Vivek Ramaswamy's wife Apoorva launched a passionate defense of her husband after the debate on Wednesday night.

Her husband was criticized for targeting Nikki Haley's daughter's TikTok account during a spat early in the evening.

'I’m sick of political people separating us based on men and women. We are people, we can fail. Men can fail. Women can fail,' Apoorva told a reporter in the post-debate spin room.

'There is no one who is more supportive of women than my husband. He is an amazing man, he is a supporter of women. I am a surgeon, I’m working, I went to Yale for college and medical school and he has supported me in every stage of my career. He is extremely pro-woman.

'It is a shame to call Nikki Haley – or other people who are failing their responsibilities – as representatives of women.'

Nikki Haley secured loud applause as she used the third Republican debate to call for a 'consensus' and civility in the key election debate over abortion.

The former South Carolina governor said she would not commit to a specific time limit and wanted it left to individual states to decide.

She said, if a federal ban was pursued by Republicans it should be a 'realistic' one that could be passed by Congress.

Haley said: 'I would support anything that would pass (Congress) because that's what would save more babies and support more moms, but you have to be honest with the American people.

'What I say to the American people is let's bring people together and see what we can agree on.

'(As president) I would sign anything that would get 60 Senate votes. But don’t make the American people think you’re going to push something on them when you don’t even have the votes in the Senate.'

She added: 'This is a personal issue for every woman, and every man. So, when we’re looking at this, there are some states that are going more on the pro-life side. I welcome that.'

'There are some states that are going more on the pro-choice side. I wish that wasn’t the case, but the people decided. We don’t need to divide America over this issue anymore.'

Haley was pressed by fellow candidate Tim Scott, the pro-life South Carolina senator, to support a 15-week ban, but she did not.

The Biden campaign responded to the third Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night by calling the GOP a 'party of losers'.

Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez released a statement saying a party would normally change course after losing an election - referring to disappointing results for Republicans in votes across the nation on Tuesday.

'But in Donald Trump's MAGA Republican Party, apparently you double down on the same extreme agenda that was soundly rejected last night in elections across the country,' she said.

'That’s what we witnessed tonight: the entire Republican field once again embracing Donald Trump’s losing and extreme MAGA agenda of banning abortion, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and rigging the economy for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of working Americans.'

Vivek Ramaswamy kicked off the debate by blaming Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel for the party's losses in 2018, the 2022 midterms, the 2020 presidential election and the 2023 elections on Tuesday.

Sen. Tim Scott says he plans to be on the fourth GOP debate stage in Alabama in December because his wave of momentum is growing.

'I'm 100% confident that 30 days from now, in Alabama, we'll be hanging out having a conversation,' said Scott in the spin room.

His campaign confirmed he had qualified for the debate in Miami one week before.

Scott is laser-focused on Iowa as his ticket to continuing his run.

'In about a week, we saw thousands of people come and donate to our campaign. And our numbers already are helping us to qualify in Iowa,' he explained.

Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump's team confirmed he will be once again skipping the fourth debate next month.

One of the biggest debate revelations came at the end of the night when Tim Scott brought a woman on stage.

His campaign later confirmed to DailyMail.com it was his girlfriend Mindy Noce.

Asked at the post-debate spin room what Mindy is like, Sen. Scott replied: 'She's great.'

He did not respond to a follow-up question on whether her attending the debate on Wednesday was a 'soft-launch' of taking their relationship more public.

It's also unclear if Mindy will make more public appearances on the campaign trail as many of the other Republican candidates bring their families and spouses along for the ride.

Scott told reporters he has been dating Mindy for 'several months.'

Vivek Ramaswamy doubled down on targeting Nikki Haley for her daughter's TikTok account in an interview after the debate.

He told CNN's Dana Bash: 'I do think that's a fair question to ask about the lack of self awareness'.

The biotech entrepreneur insisted it wasn't a 'low' blow to discuss her adult daughter.

He was booed when he mentioned 25--year-old Rena Haley's social media activity during a debate on whether the app should be banned because of links to China.

Folllowing the detbate, DeSantis slammed the former president over his 'Trump factor' that has turned off some GOP voters.

He was asked about the abortion debate and how it may impact the 2024 general election.

'I don't think it's as much about the electoral in terms of candidates. Obviously it play as role but good Republican candidates did well in 2022 in the aftermath of Dobbs. I think for our party, I think that's part of it but I think it's also, quite frankly, the Trump factor.'

'I think there's certain voters he does -- they don't like the Trump shtick, and they break for the Democrats even though they think the country's going in the wrong direction,' DeSantis said in the spin room.

'That is why I've argued, and others, and Kim Reynolds argued, Donald Trump as the nominee would be a huge risk.'

The clashes between Haley and Ramaswamy became increasingly heated on stage.

At one point Ramaswamy started talking about Haley's daughter and her use of TikTok.

Haley told him not to talk about her daughter, and called him 'scum'.

Afterwards, there was no handshake and they did not speak.

Haley hugged her daughter and posed for photographs with her on the stage.

Former President Donald Trump skipped the third Republican presidential debate Wednesday night – declaring it 'unwatchable' to his own rally crowd and blasting his party for pushing 'weak and ineffective RINOS.'

Trump singled out just two of his GOP rivals, Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, but not even bringing them up until deep into his remarks.

'Do you think we did the right thing by not participating?' he asked a crowd of supporters.

'Well listen, I’m standing in front of tens of thousands of people right now and it’s on television. That’s a lot harder than a debate,' he said.

Still dominating rivals in primary polls, the former president elected not to participate in the Miami smackdown, where Vivek Ramaswamy went compared DeSantis to 'Cheney in three-inch heels'.

Haley also pointed out a series of GOP electoral losses in the Trump era.

Ramaswamy says there should be southern and northern border walls.

'Build both walls,' he says

'If someone in the drug cartels is sneaking fentanyl across the border when I'm president, that's going to be last thing they do. We're going to shoot them stone-cold dead,' DeSantis pledged on the debate stage.

The Florida governor also reiterated his pledge to designate cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.

DeSantis invoked a powerful story of a father grappling with the accidental overdose of his son.

He said it only takes on pill laced with fentanyl to take a life.

Chris Christie has not featured heavily in this debate.

In recent public appearances in front of Republican audiences he has been booed for attacking Donald Trump.

However, the subject of the former president has not come up much tonight.

Christie was clapped when he said addiction should be treated as a disease when talking about fentanyl.

He also said he would raise the retirement age for younger workers, including his 30 year-old son.

Christie also tried to shame billionaire Warren Buffet for collecting Social Security.

'First of all, any candidate that tells you they're not going to take on entitlement is not being serious,' Haley said in response to a question. 

'Right now you have Ron and Trump joining Biden and Pelosi saying they're not going to change or do any sort of entitlement reform. What we need to do is keep our promises,' she continued.

DeSantis said the one way to shore up social security is by bringing down inflation.

The Florida governor did not commit to raising the retirement age to address the issue.

'When life expectancy is declining I don't see how you'd raise it in the other direction. We've had a significant decline of life expectancy in this country and that's just the fact,' he said.

Senior Trump advisor Jaon Miller says it's a battle for 'First Place Loser'

DeSantis: 'We are not going to send our sons and daughters to Ukraine. I am going to send troops to our southern border

'Terrorists have come in through our southern border. I'm going to shut it down. I'm going to have the military, and I'm going to deport the people who've come, particularly under Biden, who've come from the Middle East, come from all these places.

He said Biden’s $105 billion national security package, which included $61 billion for Ukraine, was a ;totally ridiculous use of American tax dollars'

He said the Ukraine war must be 'brought to an end'.

DeSantis said: 'We need the Europeans to step up and do their fair share.

'And we need to get serious about the top threat that this country faces, which is the Chinese Communist Party.'

The Republicans on the debate stage largely focused on attacking each other rather than the frontrunner in the first 90 minutes of the debate.

Ron DeSantis briefly mentioned Trump in his opening statement, saying he 'wasn't the same as he was' in 2016.

From then on the candidates engaged in bitter spats, dominated by Vivek Ramswamy attacking Nikki Haley.

A Republican operative tells NBC News: 'If Nikki goes over and punches Vivek in the face, her poll numbers would shoot up.'

She has already called him 'scum' after he brought up her daughter in one of his attacks.

Her daughter is in the audience.

Ron DeSantis is the leader among these five candidates, according to polls.

Therefore, the pre-debate anticipation was that the other four would go after him.

Instead, it has turned into a really nasty slugfest between Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy.

The low point appears to have been reached with Haley calling Ramaswamy 'scum'.

Ramaswamy had been going after the former South Carolina governor throughout the event but Haley errupted when, during a conversation on TikTok, he attacked her family.

'In the last debate, she made fun of me for joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time, so you might want to take care of your own family first,' he said.

'Keep my daughter's name out of your voice,' Haley snapped back, adding 'You're just scum.'

'I want to laugh at what Nikki Haley. Her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time. So you might want to take care of your family first,' said Vivek.

'Leave my daughter out of your voice..you're just scum' Haley clapped back.

The candidates were discussing the importance of a TikTok ban as they consider China's influence over the popular app.

DeSantis says Trump 'should explain why he didn't have Mexico pay for the border wall. He should explain why he racked up so much debt. He should explain why he didn't drain the swamp.'

The Florida governor recalls how Trump told Republicans they would get 'tired of winning.

Referring to Tuesday's elections in several states he says: 'Well, we saw last night, I'm sick of Republicans losing.

'In Florida, I showed how it’s done. One year ago here, we won an historic victory. That’s how we have to do it.'

Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said the first step is by supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia because that sends the 'biggest message to China.'

She emphasized that modernizing the U.S. military is also critical.

'There is nothing China fears more than knowing America has Taiwan's back. Let's make sure we show it by making sure they have the equipment they need.'

DeSantis took a swing at Haley, saying that she 'invited' China to invest in South Carolina when she was governor.

Meanwhile, he said he banned China from buying land in his state of Florida.

Vivek Ramaswamy says the 'scourge of antisemitism' across this country is 'sad to see.'

He continued to say tackling the root problem is the solution, which is by diluting 'wokism and anti-semitism to irrelevance.'

Sen. Scott warned U.S. universities that federal funding is a 'privledge, not a right.'

'Any campus that allows for anti-semitism and hate to allow students to encourage terrorism, mass murder, and genocide, you should lose your federal funding today, period.'

DeSantis says: 'Biden’s neglect has been atrocious. He left them stranded, they couldn’t get flights out. So I scrambled resources in Florida. I sent planes over to Israel and I brought back over 700 people to safety.'

The Florida governor says he would tell Benjamin Netanyahu to 'finish the job once and for all.'

He adds: 'I'm sick of hearing the media and other people blame Israel.'

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said 'Iran responds to strength.'

'You punch them one and you punch them hard, and they will back off. But what we don't need is Biden faling all over himself to get back in the Iran deal,' she continued.

DeSantis referred to his time serving in Iraq and slammed Biden for positioning U.S. troops as 'sitting ducks' for Iran proxies to strike in the Middle East.

'We have to be strong, and we have to defend the people who defend us.'

Nikki Haley came out strongly supportive of Israel amid its war with the terror group: 'The only thing we should be doing is supporting them in eliminating Hamas.'

Ron DeSantis added that he would tell Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu: 'Finish the job Bibi.'

Hamas should be wiped off the face of the earth, Sen. Tim Scott said.

The South Carolina Republican condemned President Biden for his weak response, saying the only way to defeat Hamas is by cutting off 'the head of the snake' - Iran.

'As president of the united States my foreign policy is simple. You cannot negotiate with evil. You have to destroy it.'

Ramaswamy said: 'Corrupt politicians in both parties spent trillions, made millions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, sent people my age to die in wars that did not advance anyone's interest, adding debt. Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden got a $5 million bribe - that's why we're sending $2 billion back to that country.

'The fact of the matter is the Republican Party is not that much better. You have the likes of Nikki Haley who stepped down from her time at the U.N. Then she becomes a military contractor, she joins the board of Boeing and is now a multi-millionaire.

'That's the choice we face. A different generation who's going to put this country first, or do you want Dick Cheney in 3-inch heels?'

Haley waited her turn to speak and then responded to Ramaswamy.

She says: 'First of all, they're five-inch heels.

'And I don't wear 'em unless you can run in 'em.

'I wear heels. They're not for a fashion statement, they're for ammunition.'

Vivek Ramaswamy has gone after Nikki Haley.

He began attacking her for being a 'military contractor' who had become a 'multi-millionaire' working for defense companies.

He then went on to call her 'Dick Cheney in three-inch heels'.

The attack drew some groans from the audience.

Haley opted to keep a dignified silence and did not respond.

Haley gets the second turn to speak.

She says Trump was the right president in 2016.

But she says he has since gone 'weak at the knees' on Ukraine.

It evokes her heroine Margaret Thatcher telling George H.W. Bush not to 'go wobbly' on Saddam Hussein.

DeSantis is standing in the middle of the debate stage.

The first question to him and it is about why he is a better candidate than Trump.

DeSantis goes after Trump.

He says: 'Donald Trump is a lot different guy than he was in 2016.

'He owes it to you to be on this stage and explain why he deserves another chance,'

The narrower field of five Republican candidates are in their final prepartions.

The debate will start on NBC at 8pm.

Meanwhile, Trump waited to take the stage in Hilaleah, Florida, for his own rally.

In both of the first two debates, he has delayed his appearance to align with the start of the main Republican event.

The Ron DeSantis Super PAC Never Back Down went on the offensive at Trump's Florida rally on Wednesday.

They tweeted a photo saying there was a 'ton of empty space' just eight minutes before he was set to take the stage in Hialeah.

DeSantis is looking to reiginite his campaign and hold second place, after Nikki Haley's recent surge in the polls.

During the first two debates, the Republican candidates repeatedly argued that Trump shouldn't be on the 2024 GOP ticket because he is unelectable.

But a poll by the New York Times released on Sunday shows Trump leading Joe Biden in five of the six swing states that will likely decide the election.

The hopefuls now face a question: If Trump can beat Biden nationwide, why should they be nominated?

Some may point to Democrat successes in elections across the country last night as another example that Trump could bring Republicans down in November 2024.

DailyMail.com caught up with the Tim Scott campaign’s communications director Nathan Brand, who set out how he sees the night playing out.

On 90 second answers – 'I think this plays to his strength as a candidate whose answers go beyond quick hits, who has the ability to speak for 90 seconds where other candidates are more soundbite driven.'

On Nikki Haley – 'Nikki has laid a path for herself, staking out a rival lane from other candidates. Tim will be clear on what that entails and that it is a non-starter. If you want to be an alternative to Trump, that’s not what the Republican Party wants.'

On being Commander-in-chief – 'Most of his campaign has been linked to domestic issues. But with Israel in the news, Tim has been able to show his foreign policy chops.’ The night will be a win, he added if the audience comes away seeing Scott as ‘commander-in-chief.'

Sen. Tim Scott speaks at the Florida Republican Party's Florida Freedom Summit in Kissimmee just days before the debate on November 4

Donald Trump had an interesting line-up ahead of his rally remarks in Hialeah, Florida on Wednesday.

Included in those teeing up the ex-president's speech was UFC star Jorge Masvidal and disgraced actress Roseanne Barr.

A familiar face also graced the stage – former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle, who arrived on the arm of her partner Donald Trump Jr., who also spoke.

Kari Lake also attended the rally and was signing copies of her book.

Kari Lake poses with Donald Trump Jr. and holds up a copy of her book Unafraid as she signs copies at a Trump rally in Hialeah, Florida on Wednesday evening

Ahead of his rally in Florida, Donald Trump deflected blame for Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's gubernatorial loss in Tuesday's election to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, 81.

The ex-president endorsed Cameron for governor and claimed credit for 'a huge surge' in support just days before the Tuesday election.

Cameron was defeated by incumbent Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. But Trump says it was Kentucky Sen. McConnell's fault.

'Daniel Cameron lost because he couldn’t alleviate the stench of Mitch McConnell. I told him early that’s a big burden to overcome,' Trump wrote on Truth Social.

He added: 'McConnell and Romney are Kryptonite for Republican Candidates.'

Kentcuky Attorney General Daniel Cameron concedes in his gubernatorial race as his wife Makenze listens

Another bid to boot Donald Trump from a state's presidential ballot by using the 14th Amendment was thrown out on Wednesday.

The former president celebrated the ruling on his Truth Social platform ahead of his debate day rally in Hialeah, Florida.

'Ridiculous 14th Amendment lawsuit just thrown out by Minnesota Supreme Court,' he wrote. 'Congratulations to all who fought this HOAX!'

Those who oppose Trump's presidency are also trying this tactic in other states – including Colorado, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida.

The 14th Amendment percludes people from running for public office who took an oath to the Constitution and then participated in an insurrection.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie made the debate stage.

This drops two more candidates from the last debate – North Dakota Gov. Doug Burum, who did not qualify, and former Vice President Mike Pence, who dropped out of the race.

Donald Trump again met and far exceeded the polling and donor requirements to debate but is skipping the event for the third time this cycle.

Instead, the former president is holding a rally just 30-minutes down the road from the debate in Hialeah, Florida.

Democrats trolled Republicans' third primary debate by scattering outside the venue 'Dark Brandon' meme cutouts of President Joe Biden's head with red laser eyes.

The cutouts were posted into the ground and along barricades outside the Adrienne Arsht Center for Performing Arts in Miami, Florida – the locations for the third Republican presidential primary debate.

'Dark Brandon' was embraced by Democrats that ironically combines 'Let's Go Brandon' – a euphemism used by Trump supporters to say 'f***k Joe Biden' – and Dark MAGA that instead turns it around to celebrate President Biden's policies.

A worker placing the memes outside the debate loads the campaign signs into a pickup truck ahead of candidates taking the stage on November 8

Hundreds of supporters of former Preident Donald Trump descended on southern Florida Wednesday just 15 miles from the location of the third presidential primary debate.

As usual, Trump is running his own counter programming to the Republican debate – this time with a rally in Hialeah, Florida, which is less than a 30-minute drive from where his competitors are on Wednesday evening.

At previous debates, Trump alternate plans weren't in the same vicinity of the debate.

The rally spectacle is sure to take viewership and attention in Miami away from the debate where participants include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, biotech millionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Trump's rally kicks-off at 7pm – exactly an hour before his competitors will start debating.

Supporters browse merchandise as they arrive for Trump's rally in Hialeah, Florida on Wednesday

At least several hundred – to upwards of a few thousand – Trump supporters wait in line to gain access to the ex-president's rally in Hialeah, Florida